Tag Archives: monster movie

“Near the Arctic Circle, an atomic bomb is detonated. This fearsome experiment disturbs the sleep of a giant rhedosaurus encased in ice over 100-million years and sends it southward on a destructive, deadly rampage!”

There is a chance I attempted to watch this flick a few times, but to no avail. This particular version is part of a Sci-Fi Double Feature DVD from Warner Brothers, with Them! on the other side. I’m pretty sure I bought this DVD for Them! after hearing Joe Dante speak about it on some documentary. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms has some incredible Harryhausen work I have only seen clips of, so I’m excited to watch the film in its entirety. I’m particularly excited that it’s also only 80 minutes long. The perfect duration.

Thoughts:

“Operation Experiment” is a terrible name for an operation. Or an experiment.

Ugh, the nuclear stuff is actually giving me a decent amount of anxiety.

AND it’s in the Arctic, mind you. Only adding to global warming. Not to mention a freaking monster is gonna be unearthed.

Oh wow, they did a full monster shot right away!

First stunt was hysterical. Looked like he took a sick wrestling bump. ECW! ECW! ECW!

Just realized that “prehistoric” literally means before written history and it kinda blew my mind. Looks like I also should go back to school and pay more attention. My wife was not as impressed.

I feel like if someone say a dinosaur, I actually wouldn’t think it was a hallucination. Like, there are definitely creatures in the Arctic that we don’t know about.

My nearly-psychologist wife is sitting next to me, and she’s really questioning this psychiatric exam.

I’m so bad with character names, I’m sorry, but the dude who just walked into the museum at 23 minutes has an odd accent.

I love that the first thing they say about the introduction of Lee Hunter is that she’s “very pretty” and that she’s “Dr. Elson’s assistant.”

“I made coffee strong enough to enter the Olympics.”

I love that Prof. Nesbitt is identifying the monster but shows no real signs of the PTSD I know I would if I saw a GODDAMN DINOSAUR.

People in the 50s YELLED on the phone.

The museum director is about to take a vacation after 30 years and BOY he doesn’t know what he’s in for, huh?

How much is a fathom? I can’t quite fathom it…

I do like that this movie is showcasing that it takes time for this monster to arrive on the coast. I feel like a lot of movies during this time, the monster just appears.

Man, I want to play the accordion.

Wow. I knew Harryhausen was an artist but holy shit, that first monster attack is gorgeous.

You can’t see this, but the subtitles are awful on this DVD. They are missing full sentences.

Our characters are at a ballet. You ever been to a ballet? I haven’t.

I also know nothing about the geography of Canada.

Oh damn, this museum director is the guy trying to save the creature. I wonder who the character would be trying to save the beast in the 2010s?

There is an octopus vs. shark sequence in this film that is unnerving. AND THEN THE BEAST.

I was worried the museum director was going to be a caricature of a greedy, money hungry businessman. Instead, he just never got to take his vacation.

This one cop going after the beast with a pistol is a real hero.

I’ve seen my fair share of monster films, but only a Harryhausen film could include a monster, show it multiple times in-full and in-motion and it wouldn’t feel cheap or “fake.” The monster’s movements are beautiful.

How do these guys not know where the monster went after it was on Wall Street? Is it a metaphor?

They really lucked into this powerline/bazooka combo to attack the creature.

How many war rooms exist in the U.S.?

The beast’s biology is a total game changer, damn.

Radioactive isotope, huh?

The Verdict:

Fun and short, great creature with an abrupt ending. The special features on the disc are pretty good, I’m listening to them while I write my verdict. Actually, listening to Harryhausen talk is kind of influencing my verdict, so I’ll have to put them on hold. I loved that the there were a couple factors that made the beast dangerous, not just that it was a terrifying monster. There seemed to be logic to this creature feature, not just chaos and destruction.